proximity
Americannoun
noun
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nearness in space or time
-
nearness or closeness in a series
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of proximity
First recorded in 1475–85; late Middle English; from Middle French proximité, from Latin proximitāt-, stem of proximitās “nearness, adjacent area, vicinity”
Explanation
The word proximity means nearness or closeness. "Because of the proximity of our desks, I couldn't help but notice him cheating on the exam." Your favorite thing about your neighborhood of attached row houses might be the proximity of your neighbors — they're really close to you. Proximity comes from the Latin proximus, "nearest," which also gives us approximate, "close to the actual." You can use this noun to talk about a physical closeness, or something that's near in time, like the proximity of the months April and May.
Vocabulary lists containing proximity
The Great Gatsby
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Hamilton
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1984
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It doesn’t possess regional proximity or regular frequency, either.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Was he too rapt by his proximity to the most powerful man in the world?
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
The proximity of “Moana 2,” released in the fall of 2024, adds to the fatigue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
“A true retreat with the feeling of being out of the city, yet in close proximity to all that Brentwood has to offer,” it concludes.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
Her bluish face creased with a pressure closing in, the near proximity of the other-than-life that crowds down around the edges of living.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Dickens’s readers balk at his use of caricature and coincidence, but as Mr. Keefe shows, both are appropriate for a money-mad city full of affluence and anonymity, weird proximities and sudden death.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
A mathematical model that could predict the speeds and proximities for electrons jumping into the ion would thus have to keep track of all those interactions simultaneously.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 2, 2021
The close proximities, the swapped sweat, faces inches apart when they’re not pressed together, all of it certainly seems like a risk during a global pandemic with a highly contagious virus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2021
At its best, his novel not only exults in the historical synchronicities and proximities he has discovered but catches the reader up in its rapture.
From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2019
The table—it was a flimsy card-table covered with a cheap traycloth stiff with starch—accounted for all awkwardnesses and proximities; again she found it secretly delicious to murmur a demure apology for its smallness.
From The Story of Louie by Onions, Oliver [pseud.]
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
